Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Wild Adventures

If you’re getting tired of hearing about Bali, sorry,just skip to next week, but I have to do this for our family history and I’m going to try to squeeze the rest of our trip into this week so that we can go on with life. This once-in-a-lifetime experience just has to be recorded! So much happened in such a tiny wedge of time!

The fun adventures just kept coming as a nice guy at the hotel told us about an amazing hike to an astounding temple where tombs of the wives, children and concubines of a former ruler were carved into the wall of the mountains on each side (where Eli and Charity had been before, which is another story). He was even ore excited to tell us about a hike through the rice fields which ended at a “secret waterfall “where he thought our garganuous group would have a splendid time.

We took his advice and when we arrived, everyone was bedecked with mandatory saris and we started our journey through the rice fields and ….

…..about 700 steps later (bless Aja and Krsiti, one who had a baby to carry outside and other a baby to carry inside) and about a hundred vendors hungry for our money, we arrived at the astonishing tombs (no actual bodies in there….just monuments).

The walk through the new rice was amazing! Each stock is nurtured in a greenhouse, then planted by hand and flooded with water. This mud was almost like quicksand but is just what is needed to nourish those baby plants.

After a ten minute walk, we arrived at the “secret waterfall” (which several other people had secretly found) but clothes were shed in a hurry to beat the heat and jump in that gorgeous waterfall for fun.

After about fifteen minutes the darkening sky unloaded on us. Our guides got giant leaves to put over Ezra and I while we watched the already soaked “kids” revel in the fun. By the time we got back to the tombs, everyone was pretty much drenched, except Ezra who I must admit was “damp”. Happy Memory!

The fun continued as we loaded in the cars again and went to what is known as the Elephant Caves. It was a remarkable cave that was open to all denominations for worship and meditation. The cave was supposedly hollowed out with fingers of ancient monks. Singing a hymn together that echoed through the spaces of the cavern made for a magical, memorable moment.